Appropriate Technology: Technology with a Human Face PDF
Preview Appropriate Technology: Technology with a Human Face
Appropriate Technology Technology with a Human Face P.D.Dunn Professor of Engineering Science, University of Reading Prelims ii ©P. D. Dunn 1978 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1978 978-0-333-24206-3 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without permission. First published 1978 by THE MACMILLAN PRESS LTD London and Basingstoke Associated companies in Delhi Dublin Hong Kong johannesburg Lagos Melbourne New York Singapore and Tokyo British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Dunn, Peter, b. 1927 Appropriate technology. 1. Underdeveloped areas-Technology I. Title 609'.172'4 T49.5 ISBN 978-0-333-24207-0 ISBN 978-1-349-16064-8 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-16064-8 This book is sold subject to the standard conditions of the Net Book Agreement. The paperback edition of this book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher's prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser. Contents Foreword by G. McRobie v Introduction Vll Acknowledgements XI 1 An Introduction to Appropriate Technology 1 2 The State of the World-The Views of Economists and the Predictions of Futurologists 18 3 Intermediate Technology and Appropriate Technology 40 4 Food, Agriculture and Agricultural Engineering 55 5 Water and Health 85 6 Energy 111 7 Services-Medicine, Building, Transport 133 8 Small Industries in Rural Areas 146 9 Education, Training, Research and Development 158 10 Getting Started 174 Appendices I Conversion Factors 179 II Gross Domestic Product, Gross National Product and National Income 181 III Project Proposals by I. T .D. G. University Liaison Unit 183 IV Water-related Diseases 185 V Energy, Work and Power 190 VI Some Educational Statistics 192 VII Official Aid 198 VIII Useful Addresses 200 References 203 Further Reading 209 Index 215 Foreword In the summer of 1965, a group of people in London formed the Intermediate Technology Development Group. They had in common a variety of overseas experience; the conviction that 'development' means first and foremost the development of people; and the knowledge that aid and development as currently practised was bypassing the majority of poor people in the developing countries. Membership and support grew rapidly, and soon the Group had a nucleus of staff and had started work on filling the 'knowledge gap' about self-help technologies: technologies that are relatively small, simple, and capital-saving, and therefore more appropriate to the needs and resources of the majority of poor people in the rural and small-town areas of the developing countries. These modest efforts nearly thirteen years ago have since grown into a world-wide network of people and organisations concerned with the development and application of Appropriate Technologies. There are now many groups-representing vari ous combinations of professional people, universities, industry and govemment-engaged on such tasks as scaling down large scale technology to bring it within the reach of rural people, up-grading traditional crafts to make them more productive and versatile, and inventing new tools and equipment with which the poor can work themselves out of poverty. Work on Appropriate Technology is going ahead in many countries in Africa, in the Indian sub-continent, the Far East, and Latin America; and as I write more are in process of formation. Many of these-indeed most of them-were started by small groups supported by voluntary agencies throughout the world. Today, this spearheading voluntary effort is being backed up by government and international support. Work programmes in Appropriate Technology are being built into the official aid programmes of the British, American, Netherlands, German and Scandinavian aid programmes, and a growing number of v vi Appropriate Technology U.N. agencies. So we are at least on the threshold of a significant shift in the allocation of aid and development resources, away from the heedless promotion of technologies that make the rich richer, and towards the development of technologies that can enable the rural and urban poor to earn a decent living. One of the pioneers in the work of developing Appropriate Technologies, and helping others to do so, is the author of this book. Professor Dunn was one of the first distinguished scholars and academics to become an active supporter of the Intermediate Technology Development Group. As Chairman of the Group's Power Panel he has systematically built up a work programme on small-scale energy sources; and he has also assisted several universities in developing countries on the launching of their own research and development work on Appropriate Tech nologies based on renewable energy sources, and he has advised on the setting up of small industry. His work-and this book-demonstrate beyond question that the discovery oflow cost, small-scale, sustainable technologies offers a whole new range of challenges and opportunities to scientists and engineers-and especially to the new generation of techno logists coming up in the developing countries. GEORGE McROBIE I.T.D.G., London December 1977 Introduction This book is about a self-help approach to development, a method variously described as Intermediate Technology or Appropriate Technology. The term 'intermediate technology' was first coined by Dr E. F. Schumacher to express his views on how development might be achieved, and his ideas have been further extended and elaborated in his book Small is Beautiful. Whilst Intermediate Technology is concerned with techniques, Appropriate Technology covers, in addition, the social aspects of development. Dr Schumacher's work and writings have been responsible for much of the recent upsurge of interest in the application of appropriate technology techniques in the develop ing countries. Its general aims are summarised in the quotation at the head of chapter 1. Development has been going on for many years and a large number of highly competent and experienced professionals have been, and still are, engaged in it. Quite often these people have been practising Appropriate Technology but not under that name, rather like the man in the Moliere play who was surprised to find that he had been speaking prose for the last forty years. What then, if anything, is new about Appropriate Technology? I think that the principal feature about Appropriate Technology which is new is that it offers a complete package solution to the development problems of a particular community rather than a piecemeal list of particular solutions. This package is appropriate to the local skills and other resources and offers the prospect of continuous development in the future. An important require ment of the field workers is information on the availability of low-cost equipment, information on techniques, and designs for equipment for local manufacture. Over the last ten years or so a number of organisations have been set up in different parts of the world to satisfy these needs. One of the earliest of these organisa tions was the Intermediate Technology Development Group Ltd (I. T. D. G.), started in 1965 by Dr Schumacher and two of his colleagues, George McRobie and Mrs Julia Porter. vii Vlll Appropriate Technology This book attempts to provide a systematic and comprehen sive general treatment of the subject. It is always valuable to see the place of one's work in the general social context and to have some idea of long-term future trends. Not only is this important in order to have some feeling for priorities but such knowledge also makes life so much more interesting. For these reasons I have outlined some of the more important views of the develop ment economists and also those of the futurologists, and hope that this introduction will stimulate more reading in these fasci nating fields. I am not an economist, and should I inadvertently 9 King Street, I.T.D.G. Headquarters (Photo Peter Fraenkel) have misrepresented their, or any other spe<::ialist's, views I apologise; this of course is a risk one takes in writing on a broad range of topics. This book is concerned essentially with poverty and methods by which it might be alleviated, and inevitably this has political implications which often in a particular situation cannot be ignored. Social, political and economic circumstances differ very widely and views on them differ even more; so, whilst recognising its local importance, no political view has been expressed here. Most of the book is devoted to the actual Introduction IX practice of Appropriate Technology. The subjects treated in clude food and agriculture, water and health, energy, medical services, building and other services, small industry, education and research. It is intended to provide background information and both to supplement and introduce the specialised textbooks and handbooks. Since it is expected that the specialist knowledge of readers will vary very widely, the standard has been selected to be at a level suitable for the intelligent general reader. Mathematics is not used and specialist terms have been avoided as far as possible. Where they have been required, for example in distinguishing between energy and power, or in referring to G.N.P., they have been explained in appendices. Statistical information is also presented in appendices. Short lists of general reading have been given at the end of the book. Bacon once wrote that 'some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested'. Most of the books listed under general reading fall under the latter category and I hope will give the reader as much pleasure as they have given me. Appropriate Technology can, I believe, make a significant contribution to solving one of the greatest human problems, that of poverty. There is no doubt of the worthwhile nature of working in this field; it also happens to be interesting, satisfying and great fun. I am not saying of course that this work is never distressing, exasperating, frustrating and hard-it often is, but so are all human activities from time to time. However, the positive returns far outweigh these negative aspects. For those readers who would like to leam more about it, I have suggested some ways in which they can do this, in chapter 10. I hope that a few might actually want to join us in the work. Prelims xi Acknowledgements I would like to thank colleagues for their help and advice (which I have not always taken), and in particular wish to mention Colin Allsebrook, Richard Burton, Irwin Friedeman, Ian Gibb, Joe Levy, John Powell, Reg Scott and Martin Upton, who have read and commented on individual chapters, and in some cases the whole book, and to Charles Preston for his help in preparing diagrams. I also wish to express my thanks to a number of authors and organisations for generously allowing me to reproduce their photographs and diagrams. Credits have been given where the material appears in the book. I.T.D.G. and I.T.D.G. colleagues Peter Fraenkel, Vernon Littlewood, Jane Landymore and Frank Solomon have been especially helpful.
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